Illuminating Thrace's Neolithic Habitation with Geophysical Mapping

Geophysical prospection was carried out in tandem with surface survey in a number of Neolithic settlements in the Aegean Thrace under the auspices of the Mapping the Early Farmers in Thrace (MAPFARM) project. The goal of the venture was to investigate a number of settlements in two geographical regions in Thrace (Xanthe and Rhodope) emphasizing the way of habitation of the region in terms of their intra-site organization and the relation of them with respect to their surrounding environs. Eight settlements in total (Yfantes, Krovili, Fanari, Diomideia, Lafrouda, Nea Santa, Myllon Manna and Paradimi), each one established at different environmental settings, were explored through the combination of multisensory magnetic survey, ground penetrating radar and EMI techniques, which covered more than 250,000 square meters of the terrain. Drone images were also used to create DEMs that were employed as background layers contributing towards the interpretation of the geophysical and conventional survey results. The distribution of surface finds, normalized in terms of the surface visibility, complemented the results of the geophysical survey, which provided a more detailed image of the extension of the sites (a lot of which have been confined within ditches), their architectural relics (most of which consisting of residues of burnt daub-based structures and pits) and other features that expect further verification through excavation approaches. The particular results have confirmed previous test excavations in some of the sites and coring analysis.